Motivation
I want to bake Schwarzbrot, but I didn't (and still don't) have a recipe. I knew that eventually I wanted to bake a bread containing only rye, water and salt, that it should be dark in colour, dense and containing substantial amounts of unmilled grain. I also wanted to avoid kneading the dough.
Definition of Terms
Schwarzbrot
I use the german word Schwarzbrot, literally 'black bread', to describe this type of bread. By that word I mean a bread of the type described above.
Sponge
This is the first stage of the dough. It generally contains all of the liquid ingredients, half the flour and is left to ferment over night.
Early Breads
I started by baking breads containing some significant fraction of non rye flour, mostly because I was afraid of dealing with the mostly unpleasant consistency of a pure rye flour.
I was also adding large amounts of seeds of various types. Bread 1 -------
Sponge
- 900ml Water
- 100g Barley
- 100g Buckwheat
- 150g Spelt Flour
- 200g Rye Flour
- Sourdough Started
- 18g Salt
Dough
- Sponge
- 50g Seeds
- 50g Sunflour Seeds
- 30g Linseed
- 20g Sesame Seeds
- 20g Poppy Seeds
- 100g Porridge Oats
- 300g Rye Flour
Method
I made the sponge the night before baking and the dough the next morning. The consistency was something like thick porridge: Stiring is possible if hard, kneading would have been impossible. I transferred the dough into ungreased tins immediately thereafter and baked the bread at 200C for 1 hour after coming home from work that evening.
Notes
- The dough was a little dry and hard to mix
- The bread did not rise sufficiently
- I baked the bread too long
- It was well received at work. After sitting for a view days it was quite tasty.
Bread 2
As bread 1, but with 60ml additional water and baked for 50m instead of 1 hour. The consistency of the dough was better and the baked bread was not so dry.
I had great difficulty in removing the bread from the tins and the crust may have separated in a few places on the bottom.
Cheaper Breads
I realised now that the bread I was baking was relatively expensive. All the seeds, especially the pumpkin seeds, really drove up the cost. When baked it was hard to tell the difference between them anyway.
Bread 3
Sponge
- 900ml Water
- 450g Rye Flour
- Sourdough Started
- 25g Salt
Dough
- Sponge
- 450g Rye Flour
Notes
The first all rye bread that I tried to make. This turned out very sour and quite dark in colour. I theorised that the whole grains I was adding previously had a moderating effect on the acidity.
As with previous breads, there was not enough dough to fill up the forms.
Bread 4
Sponge
- 1100ml Water
- 250g Barley, soaked for 36h
- 300g Rye Flour
- 30g Salt
- Sourdough Starter
Dough
- Sponge
- 550g Rye Flour
Notes
I wrote this at the time:
"A dough consistency such as to maximise hardship in transferring dough to forms. Maybe try wetter next time!"
The dough was much to dry (at 100% hydradition!), this was exactly the consistency I was afraid of. If I remember correctly, once baked this one was pretty good.
Bread 5
Sponge
- 1200ml Water
- 180g Barley
- 380g Rye Flour
- 30g Salt
- Sourdough
Dough
- Sponge
- 550g Rye Flour
Notes
The bread fell partially apart when I tried to remove it from the form. It didn't stick to the form, it just fell apart. At the time I thought this was because I didn't bake it for long enough. It was very soft and extremely wet.
Bread 6
Sponge
- 1200ml Water
- 250g barley
- 300g Rye Flour
- 30g Salt
- Sourdough
Dough
- 550g Rye Flour
Baking
- 60m at 200C
- 10m with the oven turned off but cooling down
- 5m in the form outside of the oven
Notes
The rest period after baking allows the bread to firm up somewhat before removing it from the tins. This together with generously oiling and flouring the tins before adding the dough meant that the bread did not fall apart on removeal (yay).
Sometime about now I realised that the consistency of the bread changes dramatically in between removal from the oven and when it is cold. Immediately after removal it is like a wet sponge: very soft and extremely wet. I thought that it was underbaked and tried baking it longer with no success. A few attempts later I realised that that is just how it is. After cooling down the crust is still crisp and the bread is firm.
Bread 7
Baking
- Preheat to 200C
- 80m at 180C
- 10m with the oven turned off
- 5m in the form outside of the oven
Notes
Removal from the form was easy and the bread was intact. It also tasted good and looked good from the outside. However the crust had substantially detached from the crumb at the top. This was a trend that had been getting worse in the last few baking attempts. I read this might be because the top crust was drying while proofing and trapping a large gas bubble.
New Flour Mill
At this point I bought a flour mill. This allowed me to use rye grain that I could buy in bulk for half the price of the flour. It being whole grain, I could easily buy 25kg. This will take me 3-4 months to use up during which time an equivalent quantity of flour would have gone off.
It also allows me to bake a pure rye bread with whole grains, have better control over the fineness of the flour and produce malted rye.
Bread 8
Sponge
- 1200ml Water
- 440g very coarse rye grist
- 100g fine rye flour
- 30g Salt
- Sourdough Starter
Dough
- 540g fine rye flour
- 10g rye malt
Baking
- 80m at 180C
- 10m with the oven turned off
- 5m in the form outside of the oven
Notes
I did not add any whole rye grain in this one. I was afraid that the grain would not soak sufficiently. This turned out to be an unfounded fear. Also, milling this much fine flour was a lot of work (it's a manual mill). The next recipes need to be made with coarser flour.
I reduced the problems of the detaching crust by cutting into the top surface after baking for a few minutes. This reduced but did not eliminate the issue.
Bread 9
Sponge
- 200g Rye Grain
- 200g Rye Grist
- 20g Salt
- Sourdough Starter
Dough
- 10g Rye Malt
- 320g Schrot Roggen
Method
I have started leaving the sponge from the night before baking until the time when I come home from work the next day.
Baking
- Cut the top surface deeply
- 90m at 160C
- Slowly cooling down thing as previous
Notes
Cutting the top surface quite deeply really helped the problems of the detaching crust here. This one turned out great. However:
- The dough was a little on the wet side before baking. Next time I should try a 100% hydration dough. It could also be baked a little longer.
- The whole rye grain was a little on the crunchy side, especially within the first 36 hours after baking. This improved with time.